IMO KillCam killing the Game

[Figment]

Okay, let's first define what these killcams are exactly used for and pull it in a broader perspective (Cutterjohn made a start with that). In which situation you would and wouldn't want to be known about the kills.

Let's start with a killcam overview:

PS post-death cam
PS had a post-killcam spiraling around on you, which was very, very, very regularly used for scouting. In fact, in some cases after you'd get yourself killed at an AMS, you'd use this location to pinpoint for an OS either by yourself or someone else. Of course you could only scout the immediate area around you and see who was trampling or teabagging your corpse, if people were placing new boomers in your direct area and some other things.

However, it also gave you a short time to look at the radar map for three specific things and to make a decision: respawn here/now, or wait for that medic nearby? Would it be worth respawning here or should I go somewhere else? The third of course is that you could look at where all the dots are moving without having to worry about getting shot or having to go there instantly. As such, it definitely helped you plan your next move.

On top of that, as some already mentioned, you got some information about the killer: the hit indicators, the weapon sound, tracers and finally the killspam with name and weapon used. Ultimately though, no specific location unless it happened to be so close up you could see them move of a couple meters in the post-kill killcam. However, it didn't provide specific locations aside from those you already knew from the close quarters engagement.

Note though, that this is not as much a Killcam as it is a Deathcam. Also note that in PS you did not control the cam and that it would eventually stop to spin and forced you to respawn to stop giving you information on that location's area and because it assumed you went afk.

Showing who killed you last with what kind of shot.
Basically this is a kill replay. Games like CoD use this feature. What you can learn from it is what you did wrong and what the killer saw, from which you can derive where he was located. You also get an idea of the weapon used and effort put into the shot and whatever else is seen on screen.

As these replays are typically a set amount of seconds, you get a good idea of what the player was doing prior to killing you. You basically gain more information if an engagement was shorter than killcam time than if it was long as you probably returned fire or took cover in between, making the killcam spend more time focused on the engagement with you rather than other things.

Showing what you did before you died
Rather than showing you what the enemy did, it is a recording of your death from a point of view close to you. It could be a third person view, it could be a rotating or rotatable cam. If it is rotating, you can make out some more details than from a fixed point of view. You can use this to analyse the situation a bit more indirectly to derive similar information as most of the above. It wouldn't always quite show you what the opponent did or does and is therefore more an in between of the CoD killcam and PS deathcam, as it can give you situational awareness you did not have during your death.

It's actually a bit like FIFA and other sportsgame goal replays. Of course the level of interactivity can be changed to even have control over it.

Cam on detected post-death enemy
This is where the camera, rather than providing a replay of the kill or your own post mortem corpse, shows you the player who shot you, typically from the front. World of Tanks does this, but ONLY if the player that fired at you had been discovered by the team or yourself already. In other words, only if its position was already known and you can only see the enemy as long as your team is able to see it and knows its location.

This is actually a pretty reasonable thing to me in their context, since your team was already aware where the player was located and it was also known what they were using. Besides, after you died, you can only ping the general grid location of the map and have to describe it in words. In WoT you can't respawn to do something with the information after all, you take it to the next match. If however the tank in question was out of view range, it was invisible and you do not get to see who shot you and where you were located.

Once you're out and stop looking at the enemy, the cam rests on your corpse in third person. In WoT, since your unit is now out of the match and can't do anything else, you can switch to the views of allied players in order to be a second pair of eyes for them, or use your corpse to scout from. Much like the post-death cam in PS, but with actual control by the player.

In a PS context, this would mean that both cloaked units and units not on radar or spotted would not be zoomed in on, but others would for as long as they would be detected by players on your empire.

No post-death- or killcam
There's also the option to not have a cam at all. Of course you wouldn't know if a medic is coming, nor be able to receive or pass any other up-to-date information.

One consequence this leads to players having to guess more about what happened. In itself shouldn't be a problem, but the more players guess the more they are inclined to yell at the enemy for cheating.

Especially children, teens and immature adults in free to play games... Consider that as well.


There are probably some other hybrids possible as well and they all relay different amounts and types of information. I'd like to know what they have planned so far, for now we can only share what info we think is reasonable and what isn't. I heard the suggestion before that you would get an implant to blurr the killcam, though I don't really see the point: enough info can be gotten from that. Also, I don't really think a lot of people would find value in having to give up an important implant slot for such a thing.

Again, could see how cloakers and snipers would almost feel forced to get that implant though.